Tree of the week

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Good morning. Take a deep breath and forget about foreclosures and bailouts for a minute. Think about the trees that live for thousands of years. Seriously. Pieter Severynen’s Tree of the Week explains.

‘California is home to the world’s oldest, largest, and tallest known living trees, although the actual champions grow north of here, not in the Southland itself. They are the subjects of the next three columns.

‘The oldest tree: Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva

‘Bristlecone pines grow in some of the harshest environments on Earth: sub-alpine zones between 10,000 and 11,000’ high, where temperatures range from 158º F to –15º F, soils are thin and poor; yearly precipitation is only 10”; and frequent lightning, storms and drought damage the trees so badly that they look more dead than alive. During the 6-week to 3-month growing season the trunk may increase less than 1/100 of an inch in girth. Survival is the name of the game here: the needles last for 25-30 years; bark and tissue die back to the minimum necessary to absorb the limited nutrient production; dense resinous wood resists fungi and insects; and cones with viable seeds are produced till the trees’ very end, which is counted in millennia.

‘In 1953 dendrochronologist Edmund Schulman heard a rumor about these ancient trees growing in California’s White-Inyo Mountain Range. He found several in the 3,000 to 4,000 year age range. In 1957 he discovered ‘Methuselah’, then 4,723 years old. As far as we know it is the world’s oldest living tree. The U.S. Forest Service established the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, but ‘Methuselah’ is not identified to thwart vandalism. Actually, the oldest known tree, nicknamed ‘Prometheus’, stood near Wheeler Peak, eastern Nevada. In 1964 graduate student Donald Currey (who may not have known it was the oldest) made the incredible decision to cut it down ‘for research purposes’. It turned out to be over 5,000 years old.

‘Depending on location, the tree grows slowly to exceedingly slowly to 20+’ tall, and 15’ wide. It is dense, bushy, heavy trunked; it carries its 1-1.5” long needles 5 to a bunch or fascicle; the dark purplish brown cones are 3.5” long; branches become fantastically gnarled. We are more likely to see it here as a bonsai, rock garden or container plant than a garden tree. In 1970 bristlecone pines, which grow in isolated areas in the six southwestern states, were found to be not one species, P. aristata, but two: the westernmost ones were reclassified as P. longaeva.

‘Analysis of the trees’ annual growth rings gave us new insight in past climatic events. It is ironic that global warming now threatens these ancient patriarchs and matriarchs themselves with extinction.’

Thanks, Pieter.
E-mail Pieter: plseve@earthlink.net
Photo credit: Ian Parker. See Ian’s work at Evanescent Light